Tazewell native explores passion for knitting with internship through University of Richmond summer fellowship program

Emily Whitted, ’16, of Tazewell, Va., is interning this summer with Vogue Knitting magazine in New York City through the University of Richmond’s Summer Fellowship (URSF) program.

This summer, hundreds of UR students are completing summer fellowships through The Richmond Guarantee, a University promise to provide a fellowship for at least one summer research or internship experience for all traditional undergraduate students.

Whitted, an English major and double minor in education and women, gender and sexuality studies, has been knitting for a decade and even started her own custom knitwear business in high school. This summer at Vogue Knitting’s headquarters, she assists with readership surveys, product styling, photo shoots, testing patterns and even contributes some of her own designs.

Whitted says she is glad that Richmond has provided her the opportunity to follow her passion through both mentoring and guidance from her professors and the summer fellowship program.

“People follow their passions all the time, but I think mine gets stereotyped for being something that grandmothers do,” Whitted explained. “I feel like I’m in the best place because I have so many things I could possibly do. But throughout all of these, fiber arts is really grounding me.”

To learn more about Whitted, visit the University of Richmond website.

For more information on The Richmond Guarantee and other UR students benefitting from this program, visit www.richmond.edu/guarantee.

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